After Shaq split with the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant was the single “alpha dog” leader of the franchise who was chosen to bring even more banners to the Staples Center. Despite his incredible individual play, the Lakers were consistently mired in mediocrity to no fault of Kobe’s own. In 2008, he finally clawed his way back to the Finals, only to be defeated by the Celtics in seven games, so that Summer was committed to improving his near-perfect game. He proved that he could carry a team to victory thanks to an outstanding performance at the highly competitive Olympics – just look up the clips on YouTube and you’ll see that the Black Mamba took over the Gold Medal Game and brought the Gold back to the red, white, and blue. Four years later, with two more championships under his belt, Kobe represented Team USA in 2012’s Olympics in London, earning his second career Gold Medal.
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